Care

Swimming dogs, especially hunting dogs, sometimes experience acute caudal myopathy, which is more commonly known as cold tail, swimmer's tail, limber tail, cold water tail, broken tail, retriever tail, Lab tail, broken wag, or dead tail. In a study published in the November 1999 Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, this painful condition was linked to fiber damage in muscles at the base of the tail.

Two schools in the United States (the University of Tennessee and the Canine Rehabilitation Institute) offer certification to veterinarians, physical therapists, veterinary technicians, and physical therapy assistants in canine rehabilitation. Courses include canine anatomy and physiology; conditions and injuries commonly referred for rehabilitation; physical modalities and their application, contraindications, and equipment maintenance; therapeutic exercise; client education; sports medicine; and hydrotherapy.

Hampton was a dependable flyball dog. The underwater treadmill increased his strength and stamina for the sport.üGracie the Dalmatian lives in Great Falls

It's feeding time at the Miller household. All is calm until I pick up Scooter's bowl to carry it to the laundry room where the little Pomeranian can eat without harassment from the larger dogs. As I lift the bowl from the counter, Scooter erupts with high-pitched barking and spinning, and Lucy the Corgi joins in with her deeper-but-still-sufficiently irritating vocals. It's more of an annoying bit of ritual than a dangerous or disturbing one, but it's annoying just the same, and one that would be nice to extinguish.

The supply of Immiticide (melarsomine dihydrochloride), the only drug approved to treat heartworm infections in dogs, has been low since December 2009, but now it’s completely gone. Merial confirmed that it was officially out of the drug on August 9, 2011. The current situation is due to a new and separate manufacturing challenge related to technical issues with the company who provides the finished product, according to a Merial spokesperson. Merial said the company is working hard to make the drug available again, but cannot speculate when that might happen.

Thank you for Lisa Rodier’s excellent article on breed discrimination in the insurance industry (“No Insurance,” June 2011). I am fortunate to live in Pennsylvania, one of the states that forbid such discrimination, but it still exists here due to ignorance and some shady maneuvering on the part of the insurance industry.

I adopted my greyhounds, Cleo and Ramses, from Personalized Greyhounds in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania on April 11, 2009. In May of 2009 Ramses was running in the backyard and tore one of his toenails off in the grass. The quick was exposed and it was bleeding profusely. The vet sedated him and then trimmed and wrapped his foot and prescribed an antibiotic. After several months the nail cap began to grow back, but as soon as it did it was scaly and immediately sloughed off. The quick was no longer raw so it didn’t bother him.

Dogs can suffer from heat stress in just a few short minutes, even when the temperature doesn't seem that hot to us. How will you know if a dog is at risk for overheating? There is not an exact answer to this question; it depends on the dog and the situation. All dogs are at risk in extreme temperatures. But a dog who is accustomed to 90° weather may have less risk on a very hot day than a Seattle pup vacationing in the Arizona desert. Also, the air temperature is only one consideration; humidity, sun exposure (or lack of shade), amount of time in the heat, level of exertion, and availability of water can all affect how well a dog tolerates heat.

When I began working on this article, I asked the members from the Santa Cruz Dog Training Club (the team I participate with) what they valued about being part of a demo team. Their answers varied, but one universal theme rose from the group as a whole: Being part of the team was an incredible socialization opportunity for all of our dogs.

A new 20-year retrospective study from the University of Georgia examined causes of death in dogs between 1984 and 2004. Researchers looked at records of 74,566 dogs from the Veterinary Medical Database, which includes data from 27 veterinary teaching hospitals. These results may be biased toward more severe, complicated, or unusual causes than the general dog population, but are fascinating nonetheless. The study grouped deaths by organ system and by disease category (“pathophysiological process”), and analyzed results based on age, breed, and average breed size. Eighty-two breeds with at least 100 representatives were included in breed-based analyses; mixed-breed dogs were considered as one group.

If you are visiting family or friends, the key to a great vacation with your dog pal is to ask first! Be direct: Would it be convenient for me to bring my dog? Even if your family and friends love your dog as much as you do (or love you enough to understand that you are a package deal), there may be situations when it is just not suitable to bring your dog.

Trish King, Director of Training and Behavior, Marin Humane Society, Novato, California, (marinhumanesociety.org) says potential dog park problems include...